Catling's Bane (The Rose Shield Book 1) by Peach D. Wallace

Author:Peach, D. Wallace [Peach, D. Wallace]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Tags: Catling's Bane
Publisher: D. Wallace Peach
Published: 2017-03-11T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-One

Qeyon gawped at Vianne, the man feeling no pain. The doyen had immersed him in pleasurable sensations and a sea of infatuation that turned him moon-faced and starry-eyed. Catling covered her mouth and giggled.

“Concentrate!” Vianne snapped.

Biting her lip, Catling tried. She visualized the influence easily enough and no longer thought to cover her good eye. Without the slightest effort, she could sever Vianne’s influence and leave Qeyon blushing with embarrassment. What she found impossible was to subtly curb the effect. Vianne wished Qeyon to retain a taste of the power, enough to recognize it but an insufficient amount to sway him.

“I can’t do it, Vianne.” Catling dropped her shield and the man sighed.

Vianne’s white jacket flared as she spun in her pacing. Lace ruffled from the neckline of her ice-blue underdress, and her heels clicked across the floor. She sat on the edge of her desk, her arms crossed. “At least, now you can distinguish between the types of influence.”

Catling nodded. She’d become more attuned to the variations, differences between the emotive and sensorist spectrums. Within each continuum, influencers modulated the strength of their power to elicit different responses. Mild uneasiness lay on the same scale as terror. Affection could escalate into obsession, ease into ecstasy, discomfort into agony.

Influencers combined sensations for effect. She’d seen Vianne use fear and love on a mother in the market, driving her to cling to her children as if they intended to dart from her side and drown in the swamp. Love intensified the fear until Catling shielded the woman and her emotions were once more her own.

“Qeyon.” Vianne looked toward the window where Qeyon waited for instructions. “May I apply pain?”

Catling shook her head. “No, Vianne.”

The doyen raised a hand, stilling her protest. “Qeyon?”

“I won’t cooperate!” Catling protested and slumped into her chair, arms folded over her chest.

“You may,” Qeyon said, though he flinched at the prospect.

“Catling?” Vianne arched an eyebrow.

“I refuse,” Catling grumbled. A bolt of pain shot up her legs. She shrieked and snapped her shield into place. Tears welled in her eyes at the punishment.

Vianne inhaled a slow breath. “That is what I shall apply to Qeyon. Shield him and then release your control ever so slightly. When he feels something less than the agony I inflicted upon you, we shall have finished for the morning.”

“I don’t want to hurt him,” Catling pleaded.

“The precise reason why you must master your shield.” Vianne pushed off the desk and took a seat. “Your shield is a safeguard. It protects people from influence, from us.” She gestured sharply at Qeyon and herself. “That’s why you’re here… to control us, to manage us.”

Catling chewed on a fingernail and held her tongue.

“The art of influence is in its subtlety,” Vianne explained. “Algar’s influencers are crag bears. He prefers them that way, wielding his power like an iron-studded cudgel. But that’s not effective within the power structure of Ellegeance. Those who control this realm employ such a light touch it’s barely discernable. It’s an unconscious prod, a spark of instinct and intuition that feels genuine but is, in fact, planted.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.